Wimbledon BUMMER!

Well I just listened (on Radio Wimbledon via the internet) to Roger Federer go down against Tomas Berdych in the quarters of Wimbledon. I'm SOOO disappointed!  I love Federer. What a class act he is. I feel about him like a lot of senior citizen guys feel about all the baseball greats they watched growing up - basically it was a privilege to see him play. But at some point all the great ones have to have a down turn in their career. I still think (and hope) Roger will win more slams. He IS the greatest player in tennis - ever - period. I so wanted to see him equal Pete’s record of seven Wimbledon titles this year. I only hope Nadal loses today too!

So as a tip of the hat to Pete’s record still being in tact at the big W, I am posting this painting I did of Pete circa 2001 or so. I attempted to do it in the style of one of my favorite American Illustrators, J.C. Leyendecker. Debateable how successful I was in that. I have since made a (til now) silent vow to find my own style rather than copy the style of others.

Oh well, is it beer O’clock yet? I want to drown my sorrows...­­­

Summer

One portion of my transitional period is now complete; closed on my house yesterday. Still trying to combine households with the wife in an efficient manner. Not gonna' happen. Life keeps getting in the way. I'm hoping to at least get back to actual painting by fall at the earliest.

One creative thing I'm trying to get into right now is "The Sketchbook Project". I don't do nearly enough sketching, but I figure if my sketchbook is going to tour the country, maybe it's worth it! However I'm still waiting to be sent the sketchbook, even though it's been paid for weeks ago!

Lastly, here's a shot from a botanical garden we visited in St. Lucia last month. It's "pink torch ginger". Lovely ain't it?

Transitional Period

My transitional period of selling my house, moving to my wife's place, setting up my studio, helping to do thank you notes, and fitting in all the "every day living" stuff has been keeping me too busy to do any painting! Not totally unexpected though. At least I was able to do one creative task in the past few days - Processed a boatload of St. Lucia honeymoon pictures.

Shooting RAW rules, but what also rules is the fact that you can open a JPG in Adobe Camera RAW as well as native camera RAW files.

Other than that I've found a way to force myself to fit in some art work for the next few months. More about that next time...

Bye now...

Back and Better Than Ever!

Well, I survived my wedding day and I'm back from the honeymoon in sunny St. Lucia! Thanks to all for the cards and gifts (most of which we're still opening). This image fits the goings on in my family lately. I shot it at my parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration just a week before my big day.

The tough part for me now begins, which is moving the contents of my studio, as well as the rest of my belongings, over to my wife's town home.

I will share pictures of St. Lucia in the next few days. I'm still processing the RAW files. One of the down sides of shooting digital and being a control freek!